Olympian Steve Spence’s streak of sub-5-minute miles has come to an end after 43 years. In order to hit that mark, the 57-year-old had to run slightly faster than 75 second per lap around the track.

Leafing through an old copy of Runner’s World, I came across a 2013 article by Adharanand Finn. It detailed the Running with the Kenyans author’s attempt to run a 5-minute mile (spoiler: he succeeded, ...